IBASE puts up to 180 TOPS on 3.5-inch edge AI board
IBASE has introduced a 3.5-inch single-board computer built around Intel Core Ultra 300 Series processors, with up to 180 TOPS of combined CPU, GPU and NPU performance in its highest configuration.
The IB966 is intended for local inference, machine vision, industrial automation, medical imaging and other applications where processing must take place close to the source of the data.
Processor options include the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H, Core Ultra 7 356H and Core Ultra 7 355.
The headline 180 TOPS figure represents aggregate performance across the processor’s available compute engines. It is not an NPU-only specification and should not be compared directly with accelerator figures unless numerical precision, sparsity and workload assumptions are aligned.
For design teams, sustained application performance will depend on how effectively a workload can be divided between the CPU, integrated Xe3 graphics and NPU.
Software support, memory bandwidth and thermal limits may therefore have more influence on a deployed system than the maximum aggregate TOPS figure.
The 102 mm by 147 mm board provides two DDR5-7200 SO-DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB of non-ECC memory.
Connectivity includes two 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet interfaces based on Intel I226LM and I226V controllers. The board also provides USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 connections and two configurable RS232, RS422 or RS485 serial ports.
Display connections include HDMI, DisplayPort, DisplayPort over USB Type-C, LVDS and embedded DisplayPort.
Three M.2 positions are provided. Two support NVMe storage in 2280 and 2242 formats, while an E-key 2230 position supports wireless connectivity through Intel CNVi.
A 12 V to 24 V DC input, four digital inputs, four digital outputs, a discrete trusted platform module, Intel Active Management Technology and a programmable watchdog timer support industrial integration and remote management.
IBASE specifies an operating temperature range of 0°C to 60°C. This is suitable for controlled industrial environments but does not make the board a wide-temperature product.
The published product information lists both an optional fan-assisted heatsink and a heat spreader. Power consumption is still marked as to be determined.
System designers will therefore need processor-specific thermal design power, sustained workload measurements and airflow requirements before finalising an enclosure or passive cooling arrangement.
The use of non-ECC memory may also affect selection for applications where memory error detection is required. Buyers should assess this alongside operating-system support, product lifecycle, firmware maintenance and the long-term availability of the selected processor and network controllers.
The IB966 offers a dense combination of computing, display and industrial interfaces. Its suitability for a production system will depend less on the headline TOPS figure than on sustained performance, cooling and the precise I/O configuration required by the application.
